roundup

There’s no rest for the weary. Coming off vacation, I wasn’t off the plane for two hours before I had to go to two events. The first was anUncharted 2: Among Thieves tournament held at the Landmark Embarcadero theater in San Francisco. The second was a Bioshock 2 hands-on event with the single-player and multiplayer modes. And even though I still had the mud from the Austin City Limits Festival stuck to my shoes, I had a great time at both happenings.

Amy Hennig, Naughty Dog’s creative director, was on hand for the multiplayer tournament which was held on a never-played-before map called Sanctuary. It takes place in the Himalayas and gamers will be playing the map when the game comes out next week. But for those who were at the event and got to see the game in the glorious big screen, they got their copy of Uncharted 2 a little early. The winner of the multiplayer tournament got to take home “>Fortune Hunter edition. Lucky them. The PlayStation blog has more info here.

As for the Bioshock 2 event, look for a preview on Oct. 29.

LEGO ROCK BAND: OK, so this is supposed to be Rock Band for the younger set, but strangely enough, it’ll feature artists that aren’t exactly household names to little Billy and Lucy. David Bowie, who I remember from the movieLabyrinth, will make an appearance in the game. The rocker will be joining another legend Iggy Pop in Lego Rock Band.

Knowing that there was a swine flu outbreak at PAX, this Resident Evil 5 “Thriller” tribute takes on a new meaning. I suppose it’s called Biohazard in Japan for a reason. From the looks of it, no one seems to be coughing up a lung, but they do seem to have a case of zombie fever.

HALF-MINUTE HERO DEMO: I’ve been raving about Half-Minute Hero ever since I played at an Xseed event a while back. If you want to check out the game yourself, be sure to download the demo on the PlayStation Network Sept. 10. Trust me, if you grew up with the old 8-bit RPGs, you’ll get a kick out of it.

MADDEN NFL 10 NEWS: If those cheats items at the Madden shop don’t strike your fancy, then EA Sports is hoping that a new AFL Legacy Pack will entice you to lay down a couple of bucks. On Sept. 24, players can download the pack for $6.99 or 560 Microsoft Points. It includes a 1960s-style presentation with referees in orange uniforms and AFL markings everywhere. There’s even a classic film grain filter added on and new Achievements/Trophies.

And if that wasn’t enough, EA also showed off a bit of Madden NFL 2010 on the iPhone early this morning at the Apple shindig. If you want to download it, the game’s on sale at the iTunes App Store right now for $7.99.

BEATLES XBOX 360 CONSOLE STILL PRICEY: Remember when I said that the custom Beatles Xbox 360 console was going on sale on eBay for $760. Well now that price jumped up to $4,350. Yes, there are some intense Beatles fan out there and I’m not surprised. I expect this to go higher. And one last thing I forgot to mention about The Beatles: Rock Band yesterday. According to Joystiq, The game is compatible with Lips microphones so if you have the game, you may not need to go out and buy more mikes for that three-part harmony.

DREAMCAST GAME: If there were ever a cult console, Dreamcast would be it and on the machine’s 10th birthday, fans will be celebrating with a new game! Yes, the Senile Team announced that its homebrew title called Rush Rush Rally Racing will go on sale in October. The game even includes four-player multiplayer and an online high-score leaderboard.

The Beatles: Rock Band is a couple hours away from launch, so it’d be great to run down all the crazy, insano events and promos that are going on. First off, there’s this hilarious spoof, imagining what a Beatles game would be like if the other major music franchise made it. If you’ve gone through the game or if you’re a Beatles fans, you’ll get a kick out of it.

Secondly, the full track list has been released on the InterWebs, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, the last song is fittingly “The End”. If you want to check it out, head over to ShackNews. Thirdly, one of the songs I’ll be downloading at launch is the Xbox 360 exclusive “All You Need is Love.” The sales from the DLC will go to Doctors Without Borders. Lastly, if you want to help out the organization more, you can bid on this limited edition The Beatles: Rock Band Xbox 360 console. It’s ridiculously detailed right down to the USB covers. Bid on the console on eBay. Right now, it’s going for $760.

SWINE FLU AT PAX: Apparently, there was a case of nerdflu going around at PAX last weekend. Flash-forward to Tuesday and it seems as if that nerdflu everyone was talking about ended up being the H1N1 virus aka the Swine Flu. If you’ve been to the show and you aren’t feeling well, the folks at PAX urge you to go to a doctor. Swine Flu is dangerous man.

DISNEY WIDELOAD HIRE: If buying Marvel Entertainment wasn’t enough, Disney has now bought Wideload Games. With the purchase of the studio, Disney also hired its CEO, Alexander Seropian, to help run the company’s video game branch as vice president of Creative at Disney Interactive Studios. If you don’t know, Seropian has some major clout in the industry as one of the founders of Bungie. Maybe he’ll help them make fewer Hannah Montana games and more titles that appeal to teenage boys and older folks. They do have the Marvel license after all. BTW, I found this reported on Joystiq.

MORE ON PS3 MOTION CONTROL: If you didn’t catch the first video on Sony’s new PlayStation 3 Motion Control, the PlayStation blog has another video detailing the controller’s history and the PlayStation Eye capability.

Assassin’s Creed 2doesn’t launch until Nov. 17, but after watching this trailer, that date seems even further away. I’m playing through the original bit by bit, and I have things I like (gorgeous environments) and things I hate (repetitive formula). Judging by the trailer, it looks like some things have been fixed.

GUITAR HERO, PS3 UPDATE COMPLAINTS: There’s been a stream of complaints about Guitar Hero 5 and the new PlayStation 3 update recently. In the case of Activision’s game, it seems as if the publisher overpromised and underdelivered when it comes to the whole exporting songs process. According to numerous sources, you can only import 35 songs to the latest edition. Unfortunately, no Michael Jackson songs made the list. Guess he wasn’t cool enough for the GH5, eh?

On the PlayStation 3 side, it appears that the 3.0 firmware update is causing a mess on a few systems. Joystiq says users are reporting freezes whenever they playUncharted: Drake’s Fortune. There also appears to be some controller-bricking issues as well. Let’s hope this isn’t a problem when Uncharted 2: Among Thieves comes out. A fiasco like this would make me a sad panda.

WORK FOR SONY: Speaking of PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Blog announced that they’re looking for a few good contestants for an upcoming PlayStation Network reality show called The Tester. According to the site, “This series of programs will follow a group of select gamers as they face-off in a series of elimination challenges designed to test their mental toughness, endurance, and video game knowledge as they compete for a job working as a PlayStation game tester.” Hey, it’s way to get your foot in the door, but there’s other places to find a QA job.

LOOKING FOR A BAYONETTA LOOK-ALIKE: If you happen to resemble Sarah Palin,Tina Fey or a dark-haired woman with glasses, then you could be in Maxim.com and win an Xbox 360, gianormous television and a copy of the game. What do you have to do? Submit your photo here and hope that Maxim puts you in its gallery, where fans will vote on the top entries. Platinum Games will have input on the winner. My advice: Dress in a bikini and photoshop Palin’s face on your body. Hey, you don’t even have to be a girl. The deadline for submission is Sept. 30.

KOJIMA CREATES TEAMS OF RIVALS:GamePro had the opportunity to speak with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima at GamesCom and they came away with this little fact: The teams that are making Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising don’t like each other very much. Let’s hope they don’t kill each other before they make the ultimate stealth game.

I always love how Rockstar Games cuts its trailers. There’s enough action and plot that invite plenty of speculation. From what I’ve seen in this video, it seems as if the The Ballad of Gay Tony isn’t necessarily going to be about Gay Tony, but a character named Luis Fernando Lopez, his body guard. It looks like there’s going to be some attack helicopters, a bit of parachuting, a train robbery. It also appears as if Lopez has some daddy issues.

But overall, I’m digging it more than The Lost and the Damned. I’ll be sure to download it when it’s released Oct. 29.

NEW LOOK XMB: For those who were unaware, the PlayStation 3 firmware 3.0 update hit the InterTubes last night. Got a tweet from the PlayStation Blog that said update was imminent. I went home and I was expecting to be more impressed. Other than the sparkles and more readable type, it’s nothing that huge. As for those dynamic themes, the PlayStation Store only has the LittleBigPlanet one and that’s it.

WII SPORTS RESORT APP ON FACEBOOK: If you’re constantly on the Wii and constantly on Facebook, then Nintendo has the perfect app for you. It’s a Wii Sports Resort Party Time Generator. Now, you can set up meet-ups with friends. It’s not a bad idea. It even has a Wii Party Gallery, where you can view pictures. It’s a good concept and wouldn’t mind seeing it on more Wii games or Guitar Hero because, face it, the online component isn’t great for the system.

NEW CAPCOM TITLES: When I first played Okami, I felt it was a great game on the wrong system. The brush stroke gameplay made it feel as if it should have been on the Nintendo DS rather than the PlayStation 2. Well, now it looks as if, I’m getting my wish.

According to 1up , Capcom has confirmed the rumors and Okamiden: Chiisaki Taiyo is coming to Japan next year. But what may even be more exciting is that a new game called Ghost Trick has been announced. Once again, 1up has the scoop. So you’re thinking: “Why the hell is he looking forward to something called Ghost Trick rather than a Okami sequel?” Well, the game has an excellent team behind it. Hironobu Takeshita, producer of Mega Man 9, and Shu Takumi (ZOMG!), the writer behind the Ace Attorney series, are working on this mystery-themed title. Capcom better bring that game to U.S. shores or I’m gonna be pissed.

DORITOS TAKES YOUR IDEAS: If you’ve had an excellent idea for a game but didn’t have time or the expertise to make it yourself, then you should really pitch it to Doritos. You can win a $50,000 consulting job and see your idea become reality. All you have to do is go to Unlock Xbox and throw your ideas their way. According to the release, Doritos and some folks from Xbox will choose 10 quarterfinalists. Two winners will have their ideas turned into games for Fall 2010.

With a short dev cycle like that, I figure you have to make the game super casual and easy to create. An RPG with a gazillion quests probably isn’t the way to go folks.

ROCK BAND BAR NIGHT: Attention Bay Area bar owners: Harmonix wants to set you up with some free Rock Band stuff. All you have to do is join the Rock Band Bar Nights program. Hey, I figure it’s better than Karaoke night right? For those who don’t want to sing, you can play your fake plastic guitar or fake plastic drum and be all right.

Best of all, Harmonix will compile a database of Rock Band Bar Night venues, so you can show off your drumming skills and maybe win a few free drinks at your neighborhood joint.

Yes, you’re reading that right. Dark Sector, a game that once sold for $59.99, is now on sale on Amazon for the ridiculous price of 10 cents. Yes, if you have a dime buried in your couch cushions, you can afford this game. The homeless guy hunting for plastic bottles in the trash bin can probably pick this up and make a profit at GameStop. Maybe. If this whole video game thing doesn’t work out for Dark Sector, I suppose it has a future as currency. Maybe we can replace the dime with the Dark Sector disc. Of course, that would make buying a a bag of chips at the vending machine harder and Dark Sector discs would be hard to fit in your back pocket …

APOCALYPSE! DISNEY TO BUY MARVEL: It’s a crazy world when things like this happen. Today, Disney announced that it will be buying Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Yes, Spider-Man will be working for the Mouse now.

From a video game perspective, having access to all those Marvel characters will help Disney with the guy side of things. Maybe the company can now avoid being known as the maker of all those Hannah Montana and High School Musical games and expand the brand to superhero titles via its Touchstone Pictures label. Quite frankly, I’d take Spider-Man over Turok any day.

BEATLES MONEY: A report in the L.A. Times says that Viacom paid the Beatles rights holders at least $10 million to use the band’s music and likeness in the game. The report also said that the folks who own those rights will be paid $40 million in royalties if all goes as expected.

Those are big numbers, but what’s really interesting is that Viacom may be getting out of the fake plastic instrument business in general. And from the sound of the article, it sounds as if Activision is more than happy to pick up the slack.

GOD OF WAR ON BLU-RAY: If you haven’t had time to play the previous God of War games, you now have no excuse. The PlayStation blog announced that the God of War Collection will be available this holiday season.

You can play the first and second games of the trilogy in 720 HD with a bump to the graphics and trophy support. Then in a couple of months, you’ll be all ready for the epic that will be God of War III. But if you want the full story, I suggest you also play Chains of Olympus to find out why Kratos is so angry all the time.

ROCKSTAR TITLES COMING TO IPHONE: Although Gameloft may have beaten Rockstar to the punch when it comes to open-world crime games on the iPhone, that doesn’t mean the developer is shying away from the platform. Far from it, the team seems up to be throwing its hat in the iPhone ring.

Well, it’s official but no surprise to anyone: The Xbox Elite is now $299.99, starting Friday. Microsoft’s Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson confirms it on his blog. In addition to the Elite price cut, you can also grab an Xbox 360 Pro for $249.99 while supplies last.

As for Sony, it’s ramping up its latest ad campaign “It Only Does Everything,” highlighting the features of the console. I’m wondering if it only does everything, can it make me a sandwich? Because right now, I’m getting hungry.

LAYOFFS EVERYWHERE: It was a sad and bloody time in the games industry yesterday. I heard about Raven Software’s layoffs, courtesy of Shacknews. But I was surprised to find out that Maxis Software over in Emeryville got hit hard by the layoffs. When I mean hard, I mean hard. A lot of studio vets got the axe, including some top guys. Sad.

INTERESTING NEW DS GAMES: I’ve been getting a list of off-the-mainstream game announcements recently. Some of them sound interesting. Emergency Room: Real Life Rescues lets players take on the role of an EMT and save lives. From the sound of it, the game seems to be a riff off of Trauma Center; Under the Knife.

Ubisoft announced Jam Sessions 2, the sequel to a music creator that I really liked. It sounds like you get to play more songs than the very short list of tunes in the first one. It also seems as if the user-generated content side of the game has been revamped. Looking forward to seeing the improvements on it..

Lastly, I couldn’t help but get a chuckle from Crime Scene, which seems to cash in on the whole CSI craze. “Crime Scene turns Nintendo DS into a weapon of justice. ” according to the press release. I’m sold on just that one line. Who wouldn’t want to turn their DS into a weapon?

Ever wonder what the inside of a PlayStation 3 Slim looks like? Well, now you have the answer. The folks over at ifixit have taken apart a Sony’s console update, and they have the video to prove it. If you don’t mind the snazzy music, it does a good job at showing what you actually get for $299.

As for the upcoming Firmware 3.0 update, it’s apparently the last major update for the PS3 this year, according to Eric Lempel, PlayStation Network’s operations director. He told G4TV that there may be little, baby updates but nothing as huge as Firmware 3.0. If you haven’t seen what the new software brings to the table, check it out here.

HOPE THESE DON’T SUCK: I have a love-hate relationship with Mad Catz. I love the idea of their controllers. I have Tournament Edition two Fight Sticks at home. It’s just that their execution is worth diddly poo. There always seems to be one thing wrong with their controllers and it irks me to no end. Anyway, IGN has a scoop about the upcomingCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 peripherals. I like the graphical touches and the back lighting and the combat buttons on the back. Let’s just hope these controllers don’t have design flaws or shoddy worksmanship like the other Mad Catz controllers I bought.

THIS COULD BE AMAZING: The first time I saw a game like this was on Twitter. Someone had posted a link to the experimental game Shadow Physics and I was amazed. It looks like designer Osamu Tsuchihashi had similar ideas and ran with it. GameSetWatch has an interesting post about the influence behind Tower of Shadow and guess what? It’s not Fumita Ueda-related.

MEGAN FOX FANS: OK, this sounds dirty, but fans have a chance to play with Megan Fox on Saturday. If you can get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about playing a match against Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. All you need is an Xbox Live Gold account, free time Aug. 29 at 3 p.m. PDT and the DLC map pack.

MORE PEGGLE ON XBLA: If you can’t get enough Peggle on Xbox Live Arcade, you’re in luck. PopCap just announced that they’ll be bringing Peggle Nights to the platform as an expansion pack. Look out for the extra content this fall.

Blizzard fans are an intense bunch, and just to prove it, some of them dressed up as their favorite characters (and maybe some of their own avatars), prancing around on stage at Blizzcon 2009. Some of get-ups are pretty outlandish. For others, I have no idea whom they are. I mean what is a night elf priest in Tier 8.5 or a Diablo 3 concept art wizard? But no matter whom they were, I bet they felt like badasses with that announcer barking out their presence. I mean that guy can make anyone sound like the second coming.

NEW PS3 LOGO IS RETRO: If you’ve had a time to gawk and salivate over the PlayStation 3 Slim, you may have noticed a new logo instead of the old Spider-Man font. In a long and insightful interview with the Times Online, Sony Computer Entertainment chief Kazuo Hirai explains that the change was Sony”resetting the thinking, going back to our roots.” It looks an awfully lot like the old PS2 logo. And if you hadn’t heard, Hirai also mentioned that the new wand controller is slated for “spring of next year.” That’s a lot sooner than I expected.

1 VS. 100 PRICE: There’s a survey going around the Web asking folks how much they would pay for 1 vs. 100 Live. I like the way it’s priced right now. (It’s free because it’s a beta.) But I would hesitate at anything over $5 for a season for a game that will probably be subsidize with all that advertising. According to Destructoid, the actual survey questions asks, “If 1 vs. 100 were not available as part of your Xbox Live Gold Membership Account, how likely would you be to purchase 1 vs. 100 for $15 per season (13 weeks)?” I hope everyone answers no chance in hell.

A 120 HOUR GAME? Yes, you read that right. According to BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka, his upcoming/epic/lifesucker RPG Dragon Age: Origins will take an awfully long time to fully complete. In one play-through, he says he spent 120 hours with game. He said it was two hours a day for 60 days, reports VG247. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to play until next year to write a review about game. That would be rather unfortunate.

A CROWDED ISLAND: According to Nintendo, Wii Sports Resort has sold more than 1 million copies. Worldwide the game has sold 3 million units. This comes as no surprise. What’s more interesting is that the Wii MotionPlus peripheral has sold more than 2 million units in the U.S.. I’m hoping that enough sell so that we’ll see a Wii MotionPlus Zelda.

DESIGN THE NO MORE HEROES T-SHIRT: For you artistic types, here’s a chance to show your talent. Ubisoft is taking fan submissions for the custom T-shirt to be included with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle . Goichi Suda aka Suda51 will be picking the winner so I suggest making design that’s pro-wrestling related or something with an 8-bit twist. Folks should submit their entries by 11:59 PST Sept. 10, 2009. For details, click here.

I don’t even want to know how long it took rymdreglage to make this. It must have a looong time, and it amounts to a good 3 minutes and 50 seconds of solid entertainment. I especially liked the Pac-Man segment around 1:49.

PLAY HALO ODST EARLY: If you just have to play Halo 3: ODST, then I suggest you cruise on over to the GameStop in Union City on Aug. 25 or the one in Antioch on Aug. 26. Microsoft, Bungie and GameStop have outfitted a special tour vehicle with everything you need for a hands-on look at the latest chapter in the Halo saga. Go and check it out if school hasn’t already started or if you have some free time from work.

PSP MINIS PROGRAM: Pocket Gamer got its mitts on a PDF that details the submission process for Sony’s upcoming Minis Program. From the sound of it, making games for system and submitting it to Sony will be an easier process than going through Apple and its iTunes App Store. The document says the process will be “transparent, trackable and predictable” with a lot of control being given to developers. It doesn’t sound like Sony will be censoring much, which could be good or bad, depending on developers decide to create. Let’s hope it’s not this.

NEW DIRECTOR FOR BIOSHOCK FLICK: Man, what is it about video games that makes it so hard to adapt to screen. First, we heard the demise demise of the Halo movie. And now, that Bioshock movie everyone has been waiting will have a new director, which would more than likely delay the process I assume. According to Variety, Gore Verbinski dropped out because of a plan to shoot the film overseas. Ah well, it looks like “28 Weeks Later” director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo may get the gig. I’m not a huge fan of either guys. I just want my Bioshock movie now and I want it to be good.